Last night, I hauled Baby and me over to the arena for another bit of work.  Being she had the lapse on staying on Monday night, I thought it appropriate and necessary.

The group who practices on Tuesday night is not the group who practices on Monday night.  It’s very interesting that such a divisive set of dog people exist in the same community.  The Monday night folks are mostly obedience and agility.  The Tuesday night people are mostly agility and confirmation.  The three people there who were practicing obedience were one other person from Monday night, her friend, and me.  We were in our own little squared-off areas practicing different things.  It was isolating, but fine.  We were there for a purpose, so we got to it.

I took Baby on a run-through.  I was the judge and the handler.  OK, it wasn’t as strict as the ring being I gave Baby a few treats while doing the routine, but she did fine.  Even the recall, which we did four times, was beautiful.  Absolutely beautiful!  (I hope we didn’t use them all up.)

Then came the stays.  These were perfecto, too.  Eegads!  It was as if Baby transformed into an OTCH dog.  OK, I shouldn’t go that far.  She did sniff a little on the down-stays.  (We did two sets of each.)  And on the sit-stay, Baby’s ears perked up in such a lovely fashion, but it was out of interest due to the confirmation dogs were playing a game and Baby Social Butterfly wanted to join them.  However, she maintained herself, and sat there.  I did not treat her on either set of stays until the completion of the down-stay being if I don’t treat her after the sit-stay on Saturday, she may hold a grudge, and get up on the down-stay to come over to me to ask, “What gives?’

After our one-dog run-through and stays, Baby won the blue ribbon and HIP – High in Practice.  No picture was taking being the camera had declined to come to practice night.

Yeah Baby! My beautiful 10-year-old rescue buddy!  You go, girl!

Helen